Opposition view: Upbeat Baker sees the positives after Cobblers hit Harrow for six

James Heneghan

His side may have lost 6-0 but Harrow Borough manager Steve Baker was a proud man after Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Sixfields.

With goals from Paul Anderson and Marc Richards firing Cobblers two ahead inside 11 minutes, the Ryman League side never really came close to causing an upset.

They did pose some problems for Northampton and created enough chances to briefly scare the hosts, however once Richards scored his second shortly after the restart, it became a question of how many.

John-Joe O’Toole, Matty Taylor and JJ Hooper all netted as the Cobblers romped to victory, not that Baker was overly critical afterwards.

He said: “It is rare you lose 6-0 and take a lot of positives from the game but you have to look at who you are playing.

“If that was in the league against someone at our level that is a totally different kettle of fish.

“I thought we started brightly and you can’t stop their first goal, even in the build-up play there isn’t a lot we could have done. That is what we had to deal with.

“Second goal was the only disappointment in the first-half because we played a lot of really good football.

“When we went behind we still showed enough bottle to want the ball and get on the ball. We played some good stuff and were a bit unlucky.

“We said the next goal was massive at half-time and the third and fourth goal were poor defending, after that we were chasing it.

“The difference was they scored in spells, we didn’t.”

The defeat ends Harrow’s impressive cup run. Having started their campaign in early September, the trip to Sixfields was their sixth game in this season’s FA Cup – and they were warmly applauded off by both sets of fans afterwards.

“I told them to be proud of what they have done,” added Baker. They have played six games to get here.

“A lot of those players will never play at this level of football or this round of the cup again.

“When you are walking away and getting clapped off the pitch by 400 odd fans it’s to be enjoyed.